CUBA WITHOUT CASTRO

Published: December 11, 2005

To the Editor: ''Waiting for Havana'' (Nov. 27) by Luisita Lopez Torregrosa, about the anticipation of ''the end of Fidel Castro'' by the United States travel industry brings to mind a story that circulated in the early 1990's, when Miami was aflutter with rumors of Mr. Castro's impending demise from an unspecified illness.

It was said that a diplomat, upon departing his post in Havana, offered a gift to Mr. Castro. It was a turtle from the diplomat's home country, from a species that the diplomat described as ''very special they live hundreds of years.'' To which Mr. Castro, already holding the creature, responded by handing it back and declaring with a regretful tone: ''Pity that's the problem with pets you get attached to them and then they die on you. ''

The story is probably fictitious. But on a more serious note, those in the travel industry, as well as many others, might beware the notion of one day being able to just walk into Cuba, as if the last 45 years or more had not happened.

Carlos B. Rosas
New York, N.Y.

Photo: The Nacional Hotel in Havana, where various celebrities have stayed (Photo by Tyler Hicks/The New York Times)